The Engagement Chronicles
by aalikane
Summary: A series of reaction pieces based on the Finchel Engagement, centering around Kurt's objections to the marriage. Spoilers for "The Spanish Teacher" and "Heart"
1. The Sleepover

Author's Note: This is what I think happened after Rachel revealed to Kurt and Mercedes that she and Finn got engaged.

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

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><p>"It's not the same…" Kurt whispered to his friend late at night. The three of them, like always were sleeping in Rachel's bed with Mercedes' on the left, Kurt on the right and Rachel smack dab in the middle. Mercedes had already fallen asleep, being the one out of the three of them to always fall asleep first. If they were mean spirited individuals, Rachel and Kurt probably would have put her hand in warm water or froze her bra. But they weren't, so they didn't.<p>

Rachel turned her head to look at her best friend and raised an eyebrow. "What isn't the same?"

Ever since Rachel had asked Kurt "..what would you do if Blaine proposed to you today?" he hadn't been able to get it out of his head. Even while they continued to watch Twilight and obsess about Taylor Lautner, it still floated around his mind like a black cloud. Not because he doesn't know what he would say, but because neither Blaine nor Kurt would ever think about proposing to the other at this point in their lives.

"If Blaine proposed to me." Kurt whispered back. "It's not the same. My relationship with Blaine is nothing like the relationship you have with Finn. You can't compare them."

"Why not?" She asked petulantly.

"For one, Blaine and I haven't even hit our 1 year anniversary, Rachel though to be quite honest, neither have you or Finn." He raises an eyebrow pointedly and she rolls her eyes.

"Finn and I have been dating longer than you and Blaine have, Kurt!" She says stubbornly and Kurt bites his lip and shakes his head.

"Have you really? Rachel, I love you and I love Finn. But marriage isn't something you should just jump into, especially with someone that you haven't been with for that long." He continues quickly before she can protest. "Sure, you had the summer before our junior year, and about 3 months during the beginning of our junior year but after that….you two weren't together until after Nationals."

"We were together in sophomore year too!" She said indignantly. Kurt snorted.

"You were with Finn, about as much as I was with Finn in sophomore year, Rachel and we both know it."

"So what? Why does that mean we can't get married, Kurt?"

"You're not even eighteen yet, Rachel. Why do you want to tie yourself down when your life is just starting?"

"I love him, Kurt."

"And love can continue without having to marry him. Look at Blaine and me, we're going to be apart for a year while he finishes his senior year, but that doesn't mean we're going to get married right after I graduate so we know we'll still be together. Our love and our dedication to each other will be able to survive the long distance relationship that we're going to _have_ to have. You and Finn won't even _have_ to have a long distance relationship if he decides to go to New York with us."

"Why are you trying to talk me out of this, Kurt?" She asks, not understanding her friend's motivations. She thought he'd be happy for her and his brother but apparently not.

"I don't want to see you fall into the same trap that so many other people have fallen into. I don't want you to become a statistic, Rachel. Just another pair of high school sweethearts married straight out of high school when there is no need. Can you honestly tell me that if you and Finn were to get married, that you'd end up in New York? That you'd follow your dreams? Or would you stay with Finn, wherever he is? End up getting pregnant and starting a family and giving up all the dreams you once had?"

"I can do both, Kurt."

"Not right now, you can't. I would love to call you my sister-in-law one day, Rachel. I'd love to help pick out your wedding dress, and choose the color scheme for the wedding. I can't wait to help you choose the flower arrangements and work the seating chart and everything else that I know you'll need help with. But I don't want to do that in between studying for Finals. Do you?"

"I guess not."

"You don't need to be engaged, to feel like you're connected to Finn. If you two are meant to be together, things will work out on their own. You don't need to force them."

There was silence, and neither of them spoke anymore. They were just facing one another on their sides on the bed. Rachel looked pensive and Kurt hoped that she was taking what he said to heart, because the last thing he wanted to do was have to call for an intervention amongst the parents to straighten this out. He loved Rachel, and he loved Finn deeply. But he couldn't help but think that this engagement was the worst thing to happen to the two of them since Santana let loose that she had taken Finn's virginity.

"Just because we're engaged, doesn't mean we have to get married right away, Kurt. We can have a long engagement."

"But will you? Would either of you want to wait? Take it from someone who knows Finn on a different level than you do, you're not ready to live your life with Finn and to be perfectly honest neither is he. You're young and in love. That's great. But both of you are also selfish because you're young. Are you really willing to compromise on your morals and values for Finn? Are you willing to live in a home that consumes meat? Are you willing to have a fiancé/husband who leave a constant mess in his wake that you'll have to clean up? Take it from someone who lives with him now, it's not fun." Kurt stares pointedly at her. "Trust me. Picking up after Finn is not as glamorous a job as it sounds, and to be quite honest it doesn't sound all that glamorous to begin with."

"You're not going to talk me out of this, Kurt."

"Doesn't mean I'm not going to keep trying." Rachel smiled.

"I love that you're looking out for me. But I can take care of myself." Kurt rolled onto his back. He hoped that she was right, but he was afraid she was wrong.


	2. The Parental Encounter

Author's Note: This is what I think happened after before "Heart" began. What happened when Kurt told the Berrys and the Hudmel's that Rachel and Finn were engaged.

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

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><p>"Thank you all for meeting me here." Kurt said, as he looked across the round table at a local steakhouse to see both Hiram and Leroy Berry, along with his own parents Burt and Carole Hummel. "I'm sorry we had to meet here, but what I have to tell you both requires that we not be interrupted by Finn or Rachel, and I know Rachel wouldn't be caught dead here." Hiram and Leroy had to agree on that one. They supported their daughter's vegan lifestyle, but whenever they could would sneak meat into the house to eat. Just because their daughter was a vegan, doesn't mean they were.<p>

"What's up, Kurt?"

"Have any of you noticed something strange going on with your daughter," he directed the question at the Mr.'s Berry and then turned to his own parents, "Or you two with Finn?" His parents shrugged, but the Berry's looked at each other.

"Why do you ask, Kurt?"

"I mean, we've noticed that Rachel has been drifting off a lot more than she used to during nighttime tea, but…" Kurt rolled his eyes.

"They got engaged." Both sets of parents just looked at the young man before them, none of them knowing what to say. Though apparently they all thought he was insane, which was apparent when they burst into hysterical laughter.

"Oh they're not going to get engaged. They're too young!" Carole said in between giggles and wiping tears from her eyes.

"Good one, Kurt." Burt clapped him on the shoulder as he let his chuckles subside.

But Kurt wasn't laughing. Nor was he joking.

"I didn't say they were going to get engaged. I said they were engaged."

"That's not possible." Leroy countered. "If our baby girl got engaged, she'd tell us."

"Not if both of them wanted to keep it a secret." He pointed out. "Haven't you noticed the diamond ring that's been hanging around her neck for the past two weeks?" Kurt asked, and both Hiram and Leroy looked at each other, astonished.

"We thought…"

"Did you think she was wearing it as a fashion statement? Rachel, a fashion statement?" Kurt reiterated and both her father let out a quiet chuckle at this, neither being lost on their daughter's horrible sense of fashion.

"How do you know?"

"Rachel told me about it, when Mercedes and I were over here for a sleepover two weeks ago. Neither of them wanted you guys to know, and I didn't want to have to tell you. I hoped that I could talk some sense into both of them. I tried talking to Rachel, and I tried talking to Finn. Neither of them were very receptive to the fact that getting married this young could ruin their lives and every plan they've ever had."

"Why didn't they tell us?" Carole asked and Kurt shrugged.

"I think they're both proud and ashamed of it at the same time. They know it's a bad idea, but they're both so scared of losing each other that they feel they have to do something. With Rachel and I going to New York next year, and Finn unsure of his plans, they are worried that a long-distance relationship is going to break them apart. When I think they should be more worried about the fact that living together so young is going to break them apart."

"I can't believe this is happening." Hiram said, staring down at the table. "Our baby is engaged and she didn't tell us. Our baby is engaged and she isn't even eighteen years old yet." Kurt bit his lip.

"I don't know what else to do. I don't know how else to tell them both that getting married so young, is going to tear them apart. I need your help. I love them both, and I don't want to see them derail their futures. I can't get through to them alone, anymore."

"Sounds like you have a plan." Leroy posed and Kurt nodded.

"It's risky, and I'm not sure if all four of you will go for it. But if you do, it might just show them how horrible the idea of getting married so young will be."

"While I won't automatically agree to a plan without hearing it, I'm intrigued as to what you think we might be able to do to dissuade them."

"That's just it, don't try to dissuade them. I've tried that incessantly for the past two weeks and all it's gotten me was two cold shoulders and an even closer Finn and Rachel. Trying to push them apart isn't going to work."

"Then what do you suggest?"

"Give them a test run. I know from personal experience that sharing any type of personal space with Finn requires compromise. The amount of a compromise that Rachel would have to make to cohabitate with Finn, I'm not sure she's capable of making right now. Especially not with Finn's slobbish nature and Rachel's pristine living conditions. She has a hard enough time entering his room at our house and seeing his clothes all over the place. She'll never let him dirty her personal space up like that."

"Rachel is a stickler for cleanliness…" Leroy trailed off, contemplating how well this plan might work out.

"So let me get this straight," Hiram started, "You're suggesting that we let the two of them spend the night together, in our house? In Rachel's room? Out of the question. I don't want proof that my baby girl isn't a little girl anymore." Carole snorted. Hiram glared at the woman sitting across from him. "What's so funny?"

"Your little girl isn't a little girl anymore. Hasn't been for quite some time. Not if all the used condoms in Finn's bathroom wastebasket are any indication." Kurt burst out laughing.

"He uses the bathroom garbage can? What a moron…" Kurt muttered to himself, but Burt and Carole heard it.

"Don't think we don't know about you and Blaine." Kurt blanched. "Using your bedroom garbage can isn't that smart either, when you aren't always the one to empty it." Burt pointed out, chuckling at the blush that rose up Kurt's cheeks.

"Wait, so you're telling me that Rachel is no longer a…a…"

"Mr. Berry, if I may? Rachel may be sexually active, but she's still puritanical. There's no way she'd actually have sex with Finn if you two stayed in the house while they slept. Finn might be willing, but Rachel? Never."

"I hope you're right, Kurt."

"I really think I am. Just let them see what sharing personal space would be like. Rachel doesn't even let me or Mercedes use her private bathroom when we come for a sleepover, and we are less likely to mess anything up in there. Can you imagine if Finn attempted to use it to void his bowels? She'd have a conniption. Not to mention that Finn doesn't understand personal boundaries, once again personal experience with him barging into my room on an almost daily basis, I know for a fact that his behavior and Rachel's nature will clash. They'll realize that this won't work out. Trust me on this."

Both sets of parents sat there and thought about it for a few minutes, unsure whether they could sign off on this plan. Hiram and Leroy were the first to grasp hands and simultaneously say "We're in."

Burt and Carole took a few minutes longer. "If we do this, and it backfires, it's going to be even harder to stop this insane engagement." Burt pointed out, and Kurt looked pointedly at him.

"The plan is foolproof. How could it possibly backfire?"


End file.
